smlsnd by Xu & Bill Seaman

smlsnd is a record of containment and discipline...

Inside the music, microscopic sounds live within a prone and fragile ecosystem, where ambient atmosphere shrinks to encapsulate its tiny melodies and other assorted noises.

For this collaboration, Xu & Seaman (Bill Seaman and Nicola Fornasari) exchanged samples, fragments, and ideas over continents and cables, moving from North Carolina, USA, to Italy. Although the sounds within have a certain amount of freedom, floating around in an ambient state, its atmosphere remains self-contained.

In recent years, the world has grown smaller, and the music of smlsnd reflects the change. One gets the sense that any outside interference could result in contaminating its music, or poisoning its environment, and its environment is quick to sour. It only takes a slight change to alter its entire mood, which explains its melancholic and sober nature; those feelings deepen as the record continues.

The revolving, drip-fed sounds emerge one at a time, its tiny creatures and organisms sharing the same stave, the same environment and space. When one drops out, another is quick to take its place, and that ensures a constant evolution and progression within the music. Everything changes, and life in this microscopic world must also bend to the rule.

The music is a tired set of sounds, with slow, tonal ripples occasionally beset by a light, dissonant interference or a gentle thrumming, like an insect in flight. The ecosystem is delicate, but it always maintains its balance. Particles turn into tones. Liquid meets air. Everything connects.

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Made by hand...

1 x vintage (circa:1935-1958) 7" classical / opera vinyl covers
1 x vintage (circa:1935-1958) 7" vinyl
1 x glass mastered CD (full size)
1 x circular see-through CD cover
18 x prints (150mm x 150mm) on luxury uncoated paper (designed by Craig Tattersall)
1 x double sided hand numbered print on luxury uncoated paper
1 x Qvinti Horati Flacci Opera Omnia insert (1910)
1 x vintage song sheet music insert (1910-1920)
1 x Stories of the Great Operas insert (1930)
1 x vintage family photograph
1 x vintage cine-film negative strip
1 x vintage photo negative in original glassine bag (numbered)
Stamped / hand numbered / scented
All of the above rests inside stitched Japanese wax bags
Download code (includes 19 PDF prints)
Limited to 150 copies

Made with love...

fluidaudio.co.uk